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In this interview from the Words of Rizdom podcast, trader Pat sits down to talk candidly about the real journey behind the charts—balancing a day job with London session trading, testing the “trade and travel” lifestyle in Thailand, and why passion and routine beat hype. He explains how keeping income while you learn reduces pressure, how to build rapport at work to secure trader-friendly hours, and how a tight circle and in-person meetups sharpen your edge. Pat also opens up about losing a funded account, taking accountability, and rebuilding with a calmer, more mechanical process—proof that consistency comes from habits, not headlines.
In this piece, you’ll learn exactly how Pat structures a trader’s day without burning out, the priming routines he uses to get “chart-ready,” and how to separate real strategy from social-media noise. We’ll walk through his quality-over-quantity trade selection, risk and journaling principles, and the mindset shifts that helped him stop forcing setups and start letting A+ trades come to him. If you’re new to trading—or restarting after setbacks—you’ll get a straightforward playbook you can apply today to trade less, focus more, and grow with fewer self-inflicted mistakes.
Patrick Frain Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
How Patrick Structures His Trading Day
Patrick keeps a simple, repeatable daily flow so trading doesn’t hijack work or life. The idea is to protect focus windows, limit decisions, and make every trade come from a pre-planned checklist rather than impulse.
- Set two session windows only: London open + first hour of New York; no trades outside those windows.
- Pre-market (15–20 min): mark prior day high/low, session high/low, overnight range, and clear liquidity pools.
- Define one bias for the session using structure (HH/HL vs LH/LL) and where the price sits relative to the session range.
- Cap at 2 trades per session and 1 idea per direction; if stopped twice, stand down.
- Block a hard stop time; after it, only journaling and chart markup—no exceptions.
What Makes an “A+ Setup” For Him
He doesn’t chase every move. Patrick waits for the price to come to his levels and then asks, “Is context aligned?” These rules filter noise and keep him out of mid-range chop.
- Trade retests of broken structure or liquidity sweeps into pre-marked levels; avoid the first touch of the middle of the range.
- Require confluence: session range extremity + structural break + clean retest; if you only have one, pass.
- Entry on a lower-timeframe shift (e.g., M5 HH->LL for shorts) after the retest—no blind limits.
- If spread or volatility spikes outside your average for that hour, skip the setup.
- If the setup forms more than 30 minutes after your window opens, it’s downgraded unless volatility is still elevated.
Risk, Sizing, and Exits
Patrick’s focus is survival first, growth second. He trims risk when conditions are messy and presses slightly when conditions are clean and repeatable.
- Risk 0.25%–0.5% per trade by default; never increase risk to “make back” losses.
- Stops go beyond the invalidation, not at the level; the minimum stop is the last swing + a volatility buffer (e.g., 0.5× 15-minute ATR).
- First scale at 1R if session volatility is average; if volatility is high, scale at 0.8R to pay risk.
- Move stop to breakeven only after structure continues in your favor (LL after a short’s first pullback, or HL for longs).
- Daily loss limit: −1.5R; weekly loss limit: −4R—hit either and you’re flat until review.
- If two trades realize <0.5R net in a session, do not take a third, even if limits allow—edge likely isn’t expressed.
Pre-Trade Checklist (The 60-Second Gate)
This is how he compresses discipline into one quick pass before clicking the button. If any item fails, the trade is disqualified.
- Bias aligned with the higher-timeframe swing direction for the session.
- Price at a pre-planned level (range extreme, prior H/L, clean breaker) plus a lower-timeframe shift.
- Risk: Reward ≥ 1:1.5 to the first scale and ≥ 1:2.5 to the main target.
- News risk checked for the next 60 minutes; avoid trading inside a major release window.
- Spread and execution stable; no partial fills expected.
- You can write the trade idea in one sentence; if not, it’s too fuzzy.
Journal, Review, and Rapid Feedback
Patrick treats journaling as a performance lab, not homework. He tracks what actually moves PnL: session, structure, confluence count, and emotion at entry/exit.
- Record immediately after exit: setup type, confluences used, R multiple planned vs realized, reason for scale/close.
- Tag each trade A, B, or C based on adherence to plan (not outcome).
- Weekly, print a simple table: win rate, average R, net R by session, and by setup; stop trading the bottom bucket next week.
- Screenshot three best and three worst trades; write one sentence on what made each different.
- If two weeks show net negative in a setup, shelve it for a week and re-test in replay only.
Lifestyle, Energy, and Focus Management
He’s blunt about this: tired traders make expensive decisions. The routine keeps energy where it belongs—on a few high-quality moments each day.
- Sleep window fixed; no late screens before major sessions.
- 5-minute pre-market reset: breathing + quick walk—no social feeds.
- Limit caffeine until after the first session to avoid overtrading jitters.
- Create a “closing ritual” (journal + chart save + shutdown); never linger on charts post-stop-time.
- Meet other traders monthly (online or in person) to pressure-test the playbook and keep standards high.
Prop and Funded-Account Constraints
Patrick has operated under-funded rules; the key is adjusting sizing and exposure so the account survives the quirks (daily drawdown, consistency rules).
- Start at the minimum risk until you’ve booked +5R cushion; then consider a modest size only if your win rate and average R hold.
- Respect the prop daily drawdown by halving risk after a losing trade; restore only after two green trades.
- Avoid holding into session transition if your prop rules calculate equity in real time; flatten before the recalculation hour.
- Never take correlated trades that can violate max exposure if both hit stops simultaneously.
Reset Protocol After a Drawdown
When things slip, Patrick doesn’t push harder; he shrinks, simplifies, and rebuilds momentum.
- Cut risk to 0.1% and trade only the single highest-confidence setup for one week.
- Trade replay for 30 minutes daily on your A+ setup; rebuild pattern recognition before adding risk.
- No new rules or indicators during the reset; only remove complexity.
- Require two consecutive green sessions before restoring normal risk.
Market Selection and Instruments
He favors pairs and instruments that move cleanly during his active windows, with spreads that don’t punish tight invalidations.
- Focus on majors that trend cleanly in your chosen session (e.g., GBPUSD for London, indices around NY open).
- Avoid instruments with chronic news-driven wicks during your window.
- Track a tiny watchlist (2–4 instruments); if you add one, remove one.
- If spread > typical by 50%, skip the instrument for that session.
Simple Templates He Reuses
Edge comes from repetition. Patrick keeps a small library of plays and runs them the same way each time.
- Break-Retrace-Continue: mark range extremes, wait for break + lower-TF shift, enter on the retest; first target is the opposing side of the micro-swing.
- Liquidity Sweep Reversal: prior session high/low is swept with a sharp rejection + structure shift; stop beyond the sweep extreme.
- Failure to Reclaim: price can’t reclaim a key level after a breakout; short/long the failure with a stop beyond the failed level and target the prior range mid/low.
- Each template must show structure shift + level + timing edge (session confluence) before entry.
Rules for Managing the Day Job + Trading
One of Patrick’s core themes is trading around real life. Structure the schedule so you can be consistent without burning capital or goodwill.
- Choose one primary session that fits your job hours; if you miss it, you miss it.
- Tell your team your availability window and protect it as a recurring block.
- Automate prep: a single chart template with levels auto-drawn where possible; keep your platform light and fast.
- If work intrudes during a trade, flatten immediately—no “set and hope.”
- Evaluate weekly whether trading is enhancing or degrading work performance; adjust exposure accordingly.
Personal Conduct Rules That Keep Him Grounded
These are the guardrails that prevent small slips from turning into big holes.
- Never widen a stop. Ever.
- Never add to a losing position unless it’s a pre-defined scale-in plan with smaller risk per add and fresh invalidation.
- One news headline does not cancel a setup; structure does.
- If you catch yourself narrating the market, mute the mic—only the checklist decides.
- Protect wins: if you bank +2R on Monday, trade smaller on Tuesday unless an A+ forms.
Size Risk First: Fixed R, Weekly Caps, No Revenge Trades
Patrick Frain keeps the math simple so emotions don’t get a vote. He defines a fixed R per trade and sticks to it whether he feels “hot” or not. That fixed unit turns every setup into the same bet size, making outcomes comparable and mistakes obvious. If a loss pushes him toward tilt, the rule is to stop immediately, not to “win it back.”
He also sets a hard weekly cap, so one bad day can’t nuke the account. Once the cap is hit, Patrick Frain moves to review mode only—no exceptions. He trims size during messy volatility and restores it only after clean sessions stack up. The result is a smoother equity curve built on discipline, not bravado.
Let Volatility Lead: Allocate More When Range Expands, Less When Choppy
Patrick Frain treats volatility like a traffic light for position size and expectations. When average true range and session ranges expand, he knows there’s room for price to breathe, so partials and targets can be a touch wider. In dead, choppy conditions, Patrick Frain tightens expectations, cuts size, and is happy to take base hits or stand down entirely.
He avoids forcing 2R targets in a market, only handing out 0.8R, and he refuses to size up just because he “feels right.” If spreads spike or intrabar wicks get disorderly, he immediately de-risks or skips the next setup. When volatility normalizes, he scales back to default risk before pressing again, keeping the equity curve steady instead of jagged. Consistency comes from letting the market set the pace—and Patrick Frain follows it, not the other way around.
Diversify By Instrument, Strategy, And Holding Duration To Smooth P&L
Patrick Frain doesn’t rely on one market or one play; he splits his attention across a small basket that moves cleanly in his sessions. He rotates between instruments so correlation shocks don’t hit him in the same spot twice. Within each instrument, he runs more than one strategy archetype—trend continuation when structure is clean, and mean-reversion only at well-defined extremes. This spreads edge expression and keeps him from forcing a square peg into a round market.
He also diversifies by time in trade, so not every position lives or dies on a single timeframe’s quirks. A quick scalp might pay the day’s risk while a separate intraday swing rides the session’s broader move. If one lane stalls, the other can still deliver, and the combined equity curve stays steadier. For Patrick Frain, this mix isn’t about being everywhere—it’s about having just enough uncorrelated bets to let statistics, not luck, carry the week.
Trade The Mechanics: Level, Trigger, Execution—Not Predictions Or Headlines
Patrick Frain builds every trade from three bricks: a level, a trigger, and a clean execution plan. He marks his level in advance, waits for price to interact, and only then looks for a precise trigger—like a shift in structure or a decisive rejection wick. No level, no trade; no trigger, still no trade. Predictions about where the market “should” go never override that checklist.
Execution is its own discipline for Patrick Frain: correct order type, predefined stop beyond invalidation, and a first scale that pays risk. If slippage or spreads blow out, he passes—mechanics failed, so the idea is void. After entry, he manages the position with rules, not narratives, letting structure confirm or eject the trade. The win is following the mechanics; the P&L is a byproduct, not the compass.
Define Risk Upfront: Stops Beyond Invalidation, Scales Systematic, Targets Planned
Patrick Frain treats risk as a design problem, not a feeling. Before he even considers entry, he defines the exact price that would prove the idea wrong and places the stop beyond that invalidation, not on the line itself. He calculates target locations in advance—first scale to pay risk, second to capture structure—and refuses to “find” targets after entry. With this map set, he can execute quickly without renegotiating the plan mid-trade.
Once in, Patrick Frain follows a fixed scaling sequence so winners don’t turn into coin flips. If structure confirms, he trails behind swing points; if structure fails, he exits without debate. He never widens a stop or adds size to “improve” an average outside the plan. By deciding risk, scales, and targets upfront, he converts uncertainty into a checklist—and the checklist protects the account when emotions try to take the wheel.
Patrick Frain’s playbook boils down to simple math, clear structure, and zero drama. Size risk first, so emotions never dictate the bet, then let volatility decide how aggressively you press. Trade the mechanics—not your opinions—by anchoring every idea to a pre-marked level, a clear trigger, and an execution plan that includes stops beyond true invalidation. Keep the watchlist tight, diversify by instrument and time-in-trade, and cap the day and week so a cold streak can’t spiral. Journal in plain language, grade adherence (not outcome), and cut the bottom-bucket setups fast. When the environment turns choppy, get smaller and take base hits; when it opens up, scale responsibly only after the stats confirm. And if you wobble, shrink to the A+ setup, rebuild confidence, and restore size step by step.
The bigger lesson from Patrick Frain is that consistency is a lifestyle, not a signal. Protect your energy, guard your trading windows, and shut the platform when your stop time hits. Respect prop constraints if you use them, avoid correlated exposure, and never widen a stop or add to a loser outside a written plan. Predefine targets and scales so you’re not negotiating with the market mid-trade. Treat each session like a short performance—prep, execute, review, then get off stage. Do this long enough, and the equity curve starts to reflect craft rather than luck. That’s the strategy: fewer decisions, tighter rules, and steady execution that compounds quietly.
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